So far I have had the pleasure of cleaning up car seat puke that simultaneously occurred in the Luigi’s Italian Restaurant parking lot with both twin daughters. (We have not been back since that incident in 2018.)
Since my husband was with us he drove while I helped keep our daughters cool in their car seats. Not only were they covered in puke. I also had the experience similar to the Mad House car scene with their relative’s cat while I sat tightly between my daughters. The joy of parenthood and the trials of how much can you take. I was covered in projectile vomit. Lovely right?
After an afternoon of swimming, my son complained that he had a headache and a fever. He took a nap before our drive home. About 5 minutes before we were nearly home. He starts crying that he has a headache. Then he did his usual sick cry and I asked him what was wrong in the rear view mirror? In a panicked voice, “I think I’m going to throw up!”
Well…
It just gushed out of him. Thankfully it wasn’t projectile vomit. And I was able to get us home quickly. I got the girls out and I returned with some trash bags.
At the moment, we have my son Corban riding in his car seat in the third row. We put the other seat down for space and for him to climb in from the rear.
I opened the trunk and placed all of the trash bags down to cover the chair that is down next to his car seat. I unlatched him from the car seat and told him that I was placing him on the trash bags. I told him not to touch anything but the trash bags only. So I scooted him out using the trash bag under him. Then lifted him out of the SUV. Removed all of his clothes and wrapped the dirty clothes up in the trash bag to put them in the washing machine.
I carried my son to the shower to get cleaned up while I spent the rest of the time getting the car seat out.
Took the car seat to the backyard and placed it on top of a small table surface. After I got the kids out of the car. They had the full entertainment of watching me from the window for the next few minutes in the backyard cleaning out the vomit.
I just hosed it down. That’s right I hosed it down.
Hosed the inside parts under the padding to where all the chunks flooded out of the nooks and crannies. I had placed it on it’s side to help guide the ick out and to drain.
From my previous experience when the twins had puked in their car seat baby carriers. I did remove the padding and placed them in the washer. And then in the dryer. However, it did not dry completely.
It was much more convenient to just do it this way. The sun helped to thoroughly dry the car seat AND there is no funky odor.
It does help that it is July and we live in Texas.
Sometimes you got to hose things down. That’s parenthood.